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Firebird Chorus: Birds' New Nest
Firebird Chorus: Birds' New Nest A Feathery Departure It was a long time coming. Maria Alexander wished to leave the family mansion and strike it on her own. As much as she studiously applied herself to all manner of subjects and teachings, she wished to be more independant if not at least for a short while. Bringing in the idea that she'd want a roommate in addition, she dragged an albeit reluctant Morgan -her adopted younger sister of the age of eighteen- to keep her company. Knowing a particular apartment that wasn't too far away from home, their father insisted on covering rent so long as they didn't cause unnecessary havoc and passed along the checks on time. He was an old associate of the landlord, so he'd know if they skimped out on purpose or carelessly misplaced the payments. Reassuring him that all will be in hand, she left with the things they wished in a professional moving truck and found the place of residence. Exiting the truck, the red-jacketed, white bloused brunette of long thigh-length hair had it tied back in a burgundy ribbon to form it into a ponytail. With a short plaid skirt and dark stockings covering her luscious legs, she led the way for her sister to follow along. "Come on, Morgan!" She suggested enthusiastically with a wave to her sister from the truck's passenger seat she occupied. "We have to introduce ourselves to the Landlord. Might as well get that out of the way while the movers get everything moved in." Suspiciously enough, there was a sign above the floor entrance of the apartment complex. It read as follows: "Dear Tenants. "Congratulations for taking up residence in RB's Studios. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you as the coming months to years you stay here. I will be knowing each of you by name by the time formal introductions are over, so make no mistake, I will know who every one of you are more than you know yourselves. Once you've settled in, I want to make some things clear. "To anyone under the illusion that anyone who pays here has power over me are not only misguided but incredibly entitled to such a folly opinion. I lay down some very reasonable ground rules: "Do not pay late without warranted reason (of which I am the judge of and my word is final), do not leave any suspicious smells that permeate outside of your room(s), do not vandalize or disturb your fellow neighbour(s), do not make unnecessary amount of noise, do not murder anyone and come here expecting to evade the authorities (I will see to it you are caught and anyone aiding/abetting you will be found as well), do not seek me out on my personal or business related residences outside of RB's Studios or I will have you escorted away, do not bring in pets without consulting me, do not bring in additional tenants without consulting me, no rampant cursing, no placing curses, no rampant violence, no inciting violence, do not commit cannabilism or necrophilia in your apartment, do not commit beastiality in your apartment, do not get caught committing adultery (keep your affairs to yourselves), do not stink up the apartment with sex, do not destroy the property, do not smuggle illegal substances of any kind into the complex (weapons, drugs, tech, magic, children, etc.), do not test my patience, do not willfully try to seduce me or coerce me, do not kill your fellow tenants (Both inside and outside of the Complex, please). "If any of you have issue with the following complaints, please, refer to my work number of 546-63-3275. "Sincerely, Jarris Dowery." "What a...lengthy and odd notice," Maria blinked at the laminated sign nailed above the glass door entrance. Niftily avoiding the furniture that was being hauled through by the movers, she looked back to Morgan expectantly, smiling optimistically at her. "But, I don't think we should be any trouble if dad's a friend of this guy, right Morgan?" Morgan had been surprised when Maria offered to bring her along to the apartment, figuring she’d just get one of their friends to come instead. But no, her sister had to all but unilaterally decide for her. Of course, the alternative was perhaps a bit more frightening, being so far from Maria just didn’t sound right. They were inseparable from the moment their father adopted Morgan, so her world would have been turned upside-down if she didn’t decide to come along. She spent the days since packing her belongings and organizing everything. Each box was carefully labeled to denote what was inside it, from her day to day attire to more formal wear to books, everything had a place to belong. That was something she had learned after being brought into the family and it was that belief that shaped her worldview. Her place was with the people she loved and always would be. During the drive to the apartment complex, she watched as the scenery shifted from the country to a more urban one, the physical proof this really was happening to them, they were really setting out to live without their parents always watching over them. While she was quite worried about it, she couldn’t hide her excitement as it sank in. When her sister beckoned her over to the building that would become home for the foreseeable future, she slowly got out of the truck. She wore a black jacket emblazoned with a star on the back and matching pants. Her dark hair was tied in twin-tails by two light blue hair ties. Slowly, she made her way to Maria, eyeing their new residence warily, ducking out of the way as movers carted their stuff inside. She took a look at the surprisingly descriptive document that hung both literally and figuratively over their heads. It seemed that their landlord left nothing to chance. “Yeah, if Dad trusts him, we can too.” Morgan said with a smile as she held Maria’s hand, wondering what kind of man Jarris Dowery really was. "Let's go inside." The lobby on the inside was spacious enough for the movers to get to the hall necessary. Thankfully the complex's first floor was their new living space had a wide rug that covered its flooring. The rest of the first floor -left and right halls- was decked out in burgundy carpet. There was a desk, managed by a young woman with spectacles, wearing a prim and proper blouse -with white frills around a pink bow at the collar- with a deep blue suit-jacket matching the pants worn below. The ebony haired woman a slight islander tanned complexion looked up, flashing a pair of unsettling golden eyes -with strangely cat-shaped pupils- as she smiled pleasantly at the two girls. "Hello there," She almost purred out, stopping her typing at a laptop she had set in front of her at the v-shaped lobby desk. "Mister Dowery is expecting you. Just go down the hall behind me on the left and it'll lead you past the elevators to his office." "Thank you very much miss-?" "Felicia," She insisted with a squinting smile. "I look forward to having you both take up residency here at RB's Studios." "We will," Maria answered, taking charge for her sister's sake -knowing she was shy enough without forcing her to speak to total strangers- and takes her by the hand down the hall. Once they past a strangely humming pair of elevators on either side of them they came to a dead end where a black tinted pair of windows were embedded in a wall next to an equally pitch black glass door. Reaching out, she knocked a few times before hearing a voice call in from inside. "Rent?" "UH...no-" The door opened on its own and an unseen force coerced them out of their power inside. Their heels dragged in with Maria's eyes owlishly blinking as they were dragged into a flourescent bulb lit office. Apart from a pair of specially cushioned seats sliding behind them -seemingly out of the corner of their eyes- a black-maned man was seated in a rotating leather chair while looking at a wall-sized TV screen. It was currently showing an ensemble of images with buildings, lots and other properties with RB occasionally being associated with them. Looking at them all without even turning his head to adjust his sight, he finally clicked the screen with a remote in hand and turned around. This left the screen to turn into a giant replica of the building -more than likely a drone shot for net explorers- while he turned to face them. With a sharp featured jawline framed by a well trimmed beard, the red-eyed and long-haired man wore an immaculate striped-suit with red collars and a black-silver tie. With golden buttons draped down the front of his jacket, the coat wrapped around the back of the chair, his long-nailed hands folded in front of himself onto the ebony-red colored marble desk. With a canine grin, he spoke in a guttural, rich silk voice as he gestured to the seats behind them. "Nice to have you both come here so punctually," He announced with toothy smile intact. "Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Jarris Dowery, owner of RB's Studios among many other properties, IP's and people of talent. Whom do I owe the pleasure to speaking with?" Despite the unusual manner of their entry, Maria put on a strong face. Grinning with a seat taken, she urged her sister to do the same as she spoke on behalf of them both as usual, "My name is Maria Alexander, and this is my younger sister, Morgan Deschain. We are both here to rent out your open apartment room, on reference by our father. Isn't that right, Morgan?" Morgan walked beside her sister into the building and looked around. It was certainly well-decorated in her opinion. Not too tastelessly overdone but instead it stood out in a good way. Of course, she wasn’t too picky about style, as long as something looked decent it was enough. She followed along eagerly and was surprised when the receptionist turned out to have eyes like a cat’s. Not the absolute strangest thing she had ever born witness to but it was different, to say the least. As usual, she let Maria take the lead. She was always inept when talking to people until she warmed up to them, but her sister never seemed to have that problem, something she was thankful for when moments like this came up. The doorway to Jarris Dowery’s office sent chills down the girl’s spine. It felt forboding, like a haunted house or an unexplored cave. The black glass gave the door and windows a certain disquieting air. Hearing a voice on the other side simply bark out asking if they were there to pay rent made the younger sibling jolt. But what came next was worse; against her own will, she felt herself pulled into the office by something both unseen and otherwise unfelt. In no time at all she found herself face to face with the man himself. Something he said struck her as odd, that he owned people of talent. She could only assume he was trying to make break the ice a little and so she let it go. Like her sister, she took a seat that just materialized out of nothingness behind them. She took a moment to attempt to hold back her social anxieties before speaking once Maria turn the attention of the conversation upon her instead.. “Y-yes, that’s right.” she said in a quiet, nervous tone. It took a lot for her to talk to someone she didn’t know all that well, let alone loud enough to even barely be heard. "She seems quite adorable," Jarris said nonchalantly, turning his eyes from her to Maria, making the latter pale and lean back as he somehow impossibly enlarged and leaned towards her. "Keep a close watch, less someone corrupt that innocence she has." "U-U-U-U-Uh-!" "I jest! That was a good hoot!" He laughed as he returned to normal, snapping his fingers as a stack of papers appeared in one hand. Slapping them onto his onyx-colored marble desk, he slid them forward and turned them to have to text facing upright towards them. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary about it, just a list of similar regulations, rules and various information based on the living space. "Just make sure to sign where the lines are stated for you both," He pointed to a pen that materialized out of thin air next to the paper. "While I am quite familiar with your father, please, enlighten me why did you decide to leave your family's home? Was it adventure you seek? Rebellious streak? Or did you desire something akin to...independance?" "Well, yes," Maria turned to look at Morgan, holding the pen for her to sign and look at the papers while she addressed their future landlord officially. "We both wanted to feel and act like adults. Our first step is to live in a place away from our mansion, and then learn to take care of ourselves. I know our father wants to care for us however he can, but I want to prove to him that I can earn my place not just as an inheritor of his company but also as someone who can be a respectable member of the community." "That sounds fair," Jarris rubbed his chin, caressing the beard around it as he nodded with thought. Looking to Morgan, he smiled with humor and studied her with a bit of intent. When it didn't look like she was saying anything, he looked to Maria with a glib of humour. "Your sister doesn't seem to be the talkative sort." "She's just shy," She assured the intimidating, otherworldly tycoon. Smiling brightly at Morgan, she gave her head an endearing rub with a hand, looking back to the landlord with a positive grin. "Don't worry. She'll open up after a little while; just give her some time." "Hm, we'll see," The man raised a hand to stroke his chin. "I suggest you familiarize yourself with your neighbours. While I don't implore you to fraternize unnecessarily, it is prudent to know the names of the other tenants here. Respectfully. And should you ever have a problem with them, come to me first, understand?" "Uh sure?" The brunette queried cautiously, trying to approve of whatever he said regardless of its ambiguous nature. "Very well then," He spoke with a broad, devilish grin as his eyes sparkled with crimson in a sweeping wave of his arms. "Welcome, to R&B Studios; the correct choice in apartment realestate!" First Day Obstructions In the sweep of his arms, they'd find themselves suddenly outside the office, again by an unseen force and unable to process how they were upright and out the door in the first place. Once the cold shudder vanished from their systems, Morgan would find her hand taken in by Maria's as she hurried them to their apartment and away from the creepy landlord's abode. That is, she would, if she hadn't stumbled head-first into a blonde stranger standing in between the movers hauling furnishings into their new home and them. "What the Hell is this?!" He shouted angrily, his hands balling at his hips as he shouts at the movers holding a luscious leather couch inside; awkwardly looking at each other at what to do. "Don't just STAND there! Get a move on! I have to grab my uniform and I'm late as it is because SOMEONE thought to change my work shift TEN MINUTES ago!" "Sir, we're just trying to not damage the studio-" "And I'm struggling not damaging YOUR FACE!" "Uh-" "WHAT DO YOU WAN-" The man turned and Maria gaped. The man was a tall, lean individual who was surprisingly toned despite having little mass for his body. He wore a simple white tee that had a coffee stain near the bottom front, his jeans being pre-shredded on the knees and thighs, hugging his limbs tight enough to define his muscles. With a chain buckle around his left belt loops, the blonde man had a bed-hair sweeping across his head languidly to the point of it being near-dreamy and the rest of his long lucks placed into a messy ponytail behind his back. Staring down at her with piercing blue eyes, he was all but stopping short at the sight of her and Morgan; unaware of the sweeling blush creeping up her neck and over her face. "You," He began to say with a barely controlled voice. "M-Me?" She asked, flustered still by the sight of him. "Are those your ''movers?" He inquired with an annoyed tone. "Th-They're our movers, yes-" "Then tell them TO HURRY THEIR ASSES UP!" He bellowed again, much to a wincing Maria's chagrin, letting go of Morgan's hand to raise her hands defensively. "I have to be at work an HOUR ago! And your movers are slower than the callers for the update!" "We're almost done," One of the movers said as he angled the couch, only to quiver at the over the shoulder glare the man sent his direction. "Listen, I'm sorry, but we just moved here so if you could just be a little patient-" "Oh I'm SO SORRY, princess!" He jeered out with a loud snort, roll of his blue eyes and wave of his hands. "Please excuse my BAD MANNERS! Hope I didn't curdle your tea, entitled shit-" The red in Maria's face diminished the more the man talked and the more she was taunted. Unaware of Morgan's presence ebbing behind her, she took a step forward and gestured to herself, glaring in reproach. "Hey! I'm not a princess!" Maria hair flipped with a hand, placing her hands on her hips as she cocked her chin up with indignation at him; her face now somewhat back to normal after being insulted. "I'm an heiress! There's a difference I'll have you know!" "HA! They're practically the same, sweetheart," He sassed with a taunting grin. "Why you-!" It was then that as the mover managed to fit the couch through the doorway of their apartment that suddenly Morgan was in between the arguing pair. Maria saw the top of her head of her shorter sibling, a cold mist swirled around her as the skin shimmered with a hint of ebony over the chalk complexion of hers. Drawing an incredulous sneer down at her -with his chin nearly touching his chest at how much he had to look down for their eyes to meet- she looked up with knitted frown and a pair of lips pulled back angrily. "What pint-sized? You got a problem with me?" "Yes," She quietly spoke. "And what would that be?" He grinned cheekily as he put his hands on his hips. "You." A loud POW! cracked the air of the halls, rippling them in a motion that defied the fundamentals of mass and velocity in physics. A black smog coated fist indented the man's abdomen, his body bowing over the sisters' for a split second, his lips pursed and eyes nearly bulging from the sockets. In the blink of the loud sound splitting the air, a rocketing blonde man would impact the far wall with his body cartoonishly outlining his every feature; including his ponytail frayed above his head. "M-Morgan!" Maria sputtered out with abject horror, seeing her short sibling turn around and blankly look up at her. Grasping her ample brunette hair, she yanked at it as she gestured over her black-haired sister's head. "What the Hell was that?!" "I punched him," She replied simply. "Violence wasn't necessary! He was just being an asshole!" She retorted virulently, an ample vein pulsing on the front of her brow. "But yeah, I shut him up. Everyone wins," She replied, her mouth curling into a half satisfied smirk. "No, everyone loses!" She shouted, running around her to skip down the hall and warily approach the outline of the man's body. Knocking on the side of the wall, she whispered out loud to him. "A-Are you okay?" No response. "Are you dead?!" She cried out with morbid terror. Suddenly, his body slumped out of the dark hole of the wall and faceplanted in the exact posture he had slammed into the wall, plaster caking his hair and clothes in a loud thud. A momentary groan was heard with no movement, making her breathe a sigh of relief before looking over at the outline of the man's body on the wall. Gritting her teeth, she palmed her face before dragging it off her skin with a moan of exasperation. "What am I going to do?! I just got the lease for this apartment and I'm already getting rules broken," She bemoaned aloud to herself. "I'm not apologizing," Morgan replied from down the hall. "You WILL because it's YOUR fault!" Maria gestured with an immature stamp as her face became a near beet red with anger and embarassment. "How am I supposed to explain THIS to Mister Dowery?!" Pointing at the unconscious man, Morgan replied in a deadpan tone, "That it was him being an asshole that caused it." "GRAAAAAAGH!" Maria twirled around and fell to her knees, face bending down to press against her thighs. As she narily rolled up into a fetal position, an idea struck her noggin that prevented absolute despair from sinking in. Standing upright, she looked over at the open door to their apartment and she rapidly walked in, avoiding the alarmed movers before she rifled through some boxes before finding the one with "Flex Tape" written on it. Opening it, she took two rolls with glee and skipped out, nearly bumping into a oddly blinking Morgan as she followed her sister to watch her work. Minutes would go by as she expertly taped up the outline of the hole in a pure black coat of latex rubber material, appearing glossy in the light and being obvious to the rest of the contrasting color scheme of the walls and flooring. "There! I fixed it!" She said as convincingly as she could. "Fixed what?" "The wall, obviously," She answered without thinking; till she stopped still and looked over her shoulder at a broad shouldered, tall figure in a dark suit and red collar. "M-Mister D-Dowery-" "YOU POOR THING!" He cried out with unexpected despair. Rushing forward to press his face against the taped hole, he rubbed the outline of where the impact was made, unintentionally stepping on top of the unconscious blonde haired man's body -resulting in pained groans- before he braced himself against the wall. Rubbing it with affection, he asked aloud as if talking to the broken foundation, "Who did this to you? I'll have you avenged!" "Uhhhhh," Maria began to utter out loud, looking to Morgan; the latter of which was beginning to sink into her own shadow as a means to escape this situation. "Oh no you DON'T!" Maria snarled out, grabbing her by the collar and yanking her back onto her feet. Much to her writhing dismay, the young sibling was held up in front of the landlord of R&B Studios, the man turning to bare his haunting red eyes at her shivering blue orbs. Without waiting for a retort from either of them, Maria growled out to her grappled sibling. "Well? What do you have to say, Morgan?" "I-I'm sorry," She meekly apologized, looking down at her hovering feet as they shuffled awkwardly from her sister's grip. "We were just going into our apartment after we met with you, but our movers weren't done. And..." She stoppped short, looking down at the blonde man with a distinct expression of loathing aimed at his foot-printed backside. "He was being rude to everyone, most of all my sister. I punched him to shut him up, cause I didn't like him." "Oh, so that's whose body made the hole," Jarris answered, his countenance receding from anger to one of almost empathetic understanding. Looking over at his prostrate, inert form, he sighed and rubbed his temples with his eyes knit closed. "Alright, I'll let this one go. His name is Faer Pleigh, and he's your next door neighbour so try to mind his temper. The last time he upsetted someone the whole complex had to be exorcized from the offended party-" A distant smell of copper and decay ebbed from the door directly across from their door. Bloody tinted smoke escaped the recesses of the door and all three of them turned to look at a messy head of red as fire hair with equally bloody tinted eyes with long bags of unrest beneath the eyes on the pale face. Glaring at them tiredly, the woman took in a raspy inhale- -before she let out a surprisingly loud shriek at them. "KEEP THE DAMN NOISE DOWN! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!!" "''At two thirty in the afternoon...?!" Maria thought with body rearing fright and confusion. Clearing his throat, Jarris -unimpeded by her display of harlot fury- smiled toothily as he inquired with a twinkle of red and black from his eyes, "Rent?" With another cry caught in her throat, she lowered her head down and grumbled aloud, "I'll have it next week, I swear." "Good, and we'll try to quiet down," Jarris proffered with politeness belying his menacing aura he projected at the moment. "Good afternoon by the way, Myst." "Fuck you," She snorted, her body slipping past the solid doorframe as if it wasn't there, and the smoke of bloody death disappeared with it. Sighing aloud, Jarris walked over to the aformentioned Faer Pleigh's body, grabbing him by the ankle and dragging him without fanfare to his apartment to the right of Maria and Morgan's -much to their collective chagrin-. Knocking the door, it opened without any problem and he tossed him in like a ragdoll with a loud thudding set of thumps. The door closed automatically and he turned to smile almost too endearingly at the pair. "Listen, I know you're new to this whole 'independance' shtick, so I'm going to be a little easy on you this first month. It's not your fault you're incredibly sheltered and incredibly entitled. But, once the month is over, I will break you out of your molds and you will be very much your own people," He implored with a spread of pronounced canine teeth, adding with a dark layer of humour at the lattermost words. "Or, you'll be finding another place to live. Either way, take advantage of my compassion these next few weeks, otherwise it will be far much harder to handle living arrangements in this city in the foreseeen future. Understood?" The pair of siblings silently nodded with serious understanding. "Good," He clapped his hands, snapping his finger towards the wall behind them, causing a loud pop sound to be heard. The pair looked behind their shoulders and marvelled at how not a single scratch was seen nor even hinted at. Before they could look back to the landlord, he was gone, as if he had evaporated into thin air; but his words lingered after his physical presence vanished. "I'll make sure you pay in full for the next damage you incur on this property. Keep that in mind in case you'll need more allowance from daddy dearest." As the group was still recovering from Myst’s sudden appearance, a puddle of water formed under the same door and from the liquid emerged a young woman with light blue hair and wearing a long fur coat. “I’m sorry Mr. Dowery, I’ll try to make sure we get rent turned in with more...appropriate timing.” she said, her tone dry and the words sounded rather rehearsed, as if this wasn’t the first time she had to apologize for her roommate's lack of rent money, more like this was a rather frequent occurrence. The woman noticed Morgan and Maria. “Oh, you must be our new neighbors. My name is Saleen, I work for Myst, the woman you just heard screaming. I made in my mission in life to ensure she achieves her goals.” she told them, giving off a much warmer tone to them. “I do apologize for my lady’s outburst on her behalf. On that note, I must take my leave.” she said, turning herself back into water and the puddle went back under the door, leaving dry carpet behind, as if nothing had happened at all. Between being screamed at, virtually threatened and finally having someone nice, if a bit odd speaking to them, Morgan was done with people for the day. After the movers finished their work, she put most of her things away before sitting down on her bed. “I’m sorry I almost messed everything up.” she said quietly as she curled into a ball, holding her knees to her chest. It wasn’t like she wanted to cause problems, she just hated people who messed with her sister. What Faer did was just enough to push all of her buttons at once, setting off a chain reaction that would not, could not be stopped until it was too late. It wasn’t until Maria forced her to apologize for it that she understood she made a mistake by doing what she did. While she felt no guilt or regret for punching that man into the wall, seeing how much it stressed out her older sibling left her feeling remorseful. Setting a New Agenda Maria knew from the get-go that this was going to be a difficult arrangement. She had been comfortably living within the privileged setting of her family's mansion, always waited at hand and foot by the servant girls, the head aide Diana and the many other miscellaneous staff. Given Morgan's inability to mature beyond being clung to her side, the older sister had to make a decision to help push them out of their home and become fully fledged adults. Even though they'd be provided for, initially, she wanted to make sure they could be self sustaining in the future. Once the pair of sisters finally settled in -the movers had arranged everything the way the brunette instructed- the elder sibling began to busy herself at her laptop on her desk. She didn't wait for her younger raven haired relative to spring into action, she began to open up a number of tabs, filing information and sending resumes out in full force. It didn't matter if she'd get any of them or all of them. All the mattered was that she'd get options, and she knew her little sister would need as many as she could manage. Finished, she leaned her back against the spinning chair with a dramatic sigh. "So, Morgan," She began to say, stretching her arms up to rest behind her head, swiveling back and forth while keeping eye contact at her sibling aloft on her dark themed bed. "What kind of thing did you want to grow up as? Like, before we moved out and everything?" Morgan was content to simply wait on her bed. She had to come to grips with their new situation and the time spent in thought was time served to do just that. Like her sister, she was used to having her every need tended to and now she had to figure out how to fend for herself for the most part. She wouldn’t deny that she was a little more than scared being so far from home, not the least of which was because she was surrounded by unfamiliar people and had already made a mess of things. She was curious to know what Maria was busily working on and with the flurry of keys clacking, it seemed important enough that she wouldn’t dream of interrupting her sister’s concentration. Besides, it wasn’t like they wouldn’t have time to talk about everything. Then Maria broke the silence and posed a question that left the younger of the pair flustered. She tilted her head, a bit puzzled by the conversation-starter. “Eh….What I wanted to be? I...I never thought about it really. All I know is I wanted to do something that’d make Dad and Mom and everyone proud of me.” she said, looking away nervously. Why did she have to go and ask such a question? Wasn’t it obvious she just wanted to live a simple life with her family? Naturally she didn’t really plan too far, it just wasn’t her way of going about things. “Besides, what about you? What’d you want to do?” she asked in return. "Me?" Maria put a finger on her chin. "Well, I thought that'd be obvious," She began, a smile stretching ear to ear as a dark shadow loomed over her head. "I'll take over father's company so that I'll brandish all the ideas I want to show I'm better than him! And, I'll put the boot to all of his snooty friends and show I have what it takes to surpass him! No one will get in my way as I move beyond this city and then expand my economic empire to overlapse the globe. After that, I'll take over space and time, make them my bitches; everything will be owned my Maria Victoria Alexander!" After realizing how she looked, she cleared her throat, and looked away from Morgan, "Anyways, we all have our dreams. But we have to think small before we achieve greatness. In that line of thinking I have sent a number of applications with both of our names attached to them; take a look!" She gestured to the computer screen, showing a list of jobs she applied for with Morgan's name and hers on them. A cashier at a Custard Dessert shop, a custodian at a mall, a server at a baseball stadium, an arcade associate, the list went on and on. In total they seemed to be around fifty applications, each with an efficiently copied manifest of Morgan's likes, dislikes, goals and a fabricated amount of experience that mirrored Maria's. Apart from that, it was just a showcase of Maria's ability to do things as quickly as they were cheaply. "So, any of those jobs look like a good fit for you?" Maria asked with a cheery, self confident smirk. Morgan couldn’t stop herself from grinning, her sister’s ambitions were so fantastically over the top she couldn’t take the girl seriously at all. But it was so like Maria to dream so grandly, to have a goal so wildly impossible and to make it real. It was a trait that Morgan admired, even if her sister took it to extremes. She looked over the resumes that Maria had put together in such a short amount of time, eyeing the, mostly falsified, list of experience that her paperwork proclaimed she had. She just had to hope she could live up to the unexpected and unwarranted hype and land a decent job, though she had a feeling her lack of social skills would come to haunt her. Dealing with too many people was just a stressful thing to her, one that she never quite figured out how to overcome. Family was one thing, strangers were another entirely. “Um...if I had to pick one, I would want to work at the custard place. That just sounds like heaven, being surrounded by all of the desserts I could ever want.” she said, a far-away look on her face as she imagined herself with a never-ending supply of sugary goodness. “O-of course I’d share with you if you wanted some.” she added, snapping out of her short daydream. "Ah! That's a good choice!" Maria exclaimed, her own eyes lighting up at the sound of what her sister described. "I can't wait to wrangle them out of their best desserts while being paid to serve them! It sounds like a match made in heaven indeed, just as you say!" It wasn't until long that a long slew of calls and e-mails were made to their recently acquired address. While Maria Victoria Alexander liked to keep her cards to her chest, in case things didn't work out, she wanted to at least play off that having some interviews at later dates could be feasible while taking the job her little sibling wanted. Now that she had a number of accepted applications, she was surprised when the custard place told her -after a five minute conversation- to have them both come in. Taking a jaunt down for ten minutes, they approached the custard place and found it was quite quaint. A smaller shop that looked less like a chain franchise and more of a "Mom and Pops," with a smaller store with not as much space that it could've been. Stepping in with the bell ringing, they'd appear hand-in-hand, admiring the old fashioned decorum of tiled flooring, old fashioned photographs hung on the wall and spiral-shaped fans spinning lowly over their heads; there was even a juke box that oscillated snazzy tunes in the background. At the counter, however, was a man with thick bags under his eyes with greying black hair and dark eyes. Wearing an apron with a pyramid-shaped hat, the man greeted them with a tired smile, "Welcome to Mother Rosarie's Custard, where my wife's death made the sweets that much sweeter. How can I help you?" "Uhhhh," Maria drawled out, her eyes owlishly blinking at how he worded that greeting. "We're here for the job you just...hired us...for?" "Oh, that's good," He said simply, staring at Morgan and then back at Maria. "I got uniforms in the back. What sizes are you?" "Medium will be good." "Alright. Wait here," He told them, turning around and falling face first behind the counter. Maria attempted to rush ahead only to see him push himself back to his feet with a fresh bruise on his face. Slumping ahead he walked around through an open doorway to the back, with the sounds of clutter being parted by his feet as he maneuvered to find the apparel. Stumbling back, he'd come hands out with the aprons and clothes for them both, smiling weakly as he gave Maria and Morgan their uniforms. "There. Now, if you don't mind, can one of you clean this place up and the other man the register?" "W-Wait," Maria furrowed her brows with suspicion, looking up at him with a crossed expression of doubt in her eyes. "Where are the other employees? Why are you the only one here?" "You're looking at them," The manager explained, his smile disappearing as his eyes weakly hung open. "I haven't slept in days. If you could just give me a hand, I promise to make it worth your while."